Herbalife fights Ackman back

After relentless attacks from activist hedge fund manager William Ackman, Herbalife has turned the table against him and is also calling on investors in his his firm Pershing Square Capital to pull out their money from the $12bn company.

According to a Bloomberg report, Herbalife, a vitamin supplement firm, described Pershing Square as risky and irresponsible.

They presented that Ackman has already lost about $500m this year from his risky bets shorting Herbalife.

John Coffee, professor of securities law at Columbia University in New York, told Bloomberg, "Herbalife and Ackman have been fighting in one theater, and now the warfare has moved into an additional theatre. All’s fair in love and activism," and added that Herbalife has instituted a new tactic applying pressure against an activist investor.

In late November, Ackman said he would renew his attack on Herbalife, almost a year after he shocked Wall Street with a $1bn short bet against the weight-loss company and making it known that he believed Herbalife was a pyramid scheme.

He presented his case a second time with hundreds of PowerPoint slides prepared by a team of analysts at the Robin Hood Investments Conference i......................